Young refugees reveal why they took treacherous trail to UK

Young refugees reveal why they took treacherous trail to UK

The spike in migrants risking their lives to cross the English Channel from France has raised many questions – not least, why would people take the risk leaving the safety of mainland Europe to get to the UK?

Sky News spoke to a group of young refugees with the aim of understanding their motivations. We joined 18 young people, who all arrived in the UK as unaccompanied children and had experienced the treacherous trail from the Middle East or North Africa, across Europe, ending in Britain.

Saline Yagoub, 18, left Sudan at 15 when his father and brothers were murdered. From there he travelled to Libya and paid people-traffickers around £150 to get him to Italy on a small dinghy.

He said: “The boat was so narrow and there was so many people on it – there was about 100 people. It was really difficult and people died. One of my friends died on the way over in the Mediterranean Sea.”

Saline said his friend was murdered by Libyan people-traffickers because he did not have any money to give them.

Image:Kemal lbrahim fled Eritrea aged 15

The teenager had not originally planned to come to the UK, but refugees in Italy told him it would be more welcoming than other countries. So he set out to Calais, smuggled himself onto a lorry and arrived in Dover.

He was found by the Border Agency and taken to Ashford in Kent to be processed.

He has now been granted asylum and says that what he learned in Italy was true. Life is good. He is at college and has ambitions for a life in the UK. “I want to be a pilot and a journalist,” he said.

Others had similar stories, having started out from a variety of troubled countries such as Syria and Afghanistan.

Often they did not set out to come to the UK, but through a mix of not knowing how to claim asylum elsewhere, or being advised along the way, they focused their ambitions on Britain.

Kemal lbrahim, 18, left Eritrea aged 15 to escape the troubles. His three-year journey took him through Sudan, Libya, Italy and then France.

He said: “In France it is difficult for us. In Calais the police were pepper-spraying us. So we wanted to come to the UK.”

Image:Bridget Chapman said most people seeking asylum do not come to the UK

Kemal spent a year in Calais and said he tried to sneak on to a lorry every night.

He added: “When I got on I spent two days on the lorry, sleeping in the back. It was just me – I was alone.

“When the lorry came into Dover the police caught me.”

But it is not true to think that the UK is a magnet for every refugee, nor even the majority.

In fact, Britain takes relatively few. In 2017 there were 33,780 asylum claims here, compared to 99,330 in France and 222,560 in Germany.

The Kent Refugee Action Network works with young asylum seekers who arrived into the UK unaccompanied.

Bridget Chapman, from the charity, said: “The figures don’t bear out that everyone wants to come to the UK. Most people seeking asylum don’t come to the UK.

“So what I would say to the people who think everyone wants to come here is that just isn’t true. It’s a fallacy and we need to recognise that.”

Among the group was Armani Arab, 24, from Syria.

She fled Aleppo and spent several years with her family being looked after by the United Nations in Lebanon.

She arrived in the UK thanks to a pledge from the British government to accommodate 20,000 Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries by 2020.

She said: “For me and my family it is a dream to come to the UK. My life is beautiful now. Everyone wants to come here because you can study or work. I’m very happy here.”

Critics of the organisations stepping into help these people fear that it makes the UK look like a soft touch.

But the young people we met were evidence that with help they can become productive members of society. Some now work in social care, others are looking to set up businesses.

Everyone we met had enormous gratitude to the UK. They are all survivors and that seems to translate into strong ambitions to make their lives here a success.